Home-schooled: De Pree family: Adults nurtured for success

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, January 25, 2010

For evidence that home-schooling works, look no further than the De Pree family of Midland.

The three sisters were home-schooled from kindergarten through high school graduation and now work as a physics professor, a prosecutor and a music teacher and violinist.

Erin De Pree, 28, is an assistant physics professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland; Joanna De Pree, 27, is a deputy prosecuting attorney in San Juan County, Wash.; and Heather De Pree, 25, is an elementary school music teacher and violinist in Gig Harbor, Wash.

Erin said she is proud of the fact that all three careers are so varied.

"I'm just really happy that we're all so different," Erin said. "It means that our parents really nurtured us to find our strengths, to become the best that we could be as individuals."

That's one of the advantages of home-schooling — the curriculum can be tailored to the student. Erin could work ahead in science, a subject she excelled in, but she was given the time she needed to master writing, not her strong suit.

Erin earned her bachelor's degree from Hillsdale College and both her master's and doctoral degrees in science and physics from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She then took the job at St. Mary's.

Joanna credits her home-school education for preparing her for college, her career and for life.

"I think what we really learned was how to think and how to process information, not just regurgitating," Joanna said.

Joanna earned her bachelor's degree from Hillsdale College and her juris doctorate from the Ave Maria School of Law in Florida. She has been a deputy prosecutor for about two years.

"One of the greatest things about home-schooling was being taught to be a thinker and not just a doer," Joanna said. "The vast majority of Americans are never taught that."

Heather said that as a child she had a hard time learning to read, but took to the violin right away. And home-schooling was the key, she said.

"In a regular school, I could easily have been labeled and put in a special class and never blossomed," she said.

She began playing at the age of 7, saying her parents wanted each of them to try an instrument for at least a couple of years. She now teaches the violin, both at Lighthouse Christian School in Washington where she is a music teacher, and privately. She also plays in the Gig Harbor Peninsula Civic Orchestra.

Heather earned her bachelor's degree in music from Cedarville University in Ohio.

Parents Paul and Kathy De Pree are also parents to home-schooled 13-year-old twins, Kelsey and Kurtis, adopted from Haiti about 12 years ago.

Kathy De Pree decided to home-school her children after reading the book "Home Grown Kids," by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. Published in 1981, the book advocated for teaching children at home.

She was living in California and pregnant with Erin. The book rang true, she said, and though home-schooling was relatively new, she knew she wanted to do it.

"The first question I got was always, 'Is it legal?'" Kathy said. "And then, 'What about socialization?'"

In 1989, the family moved to Michigan, at that time one of the strictest states for home-schooling.

"It was scary," Kathy said. "At first we didn't go out during the day, not till after 3 p.m."

Some pioneering home-schoolers remember truancy officers and social workers knocking at the door.

Michigan school-aged children are governed by the Compulsory School Attendance Law, which says that all children from the age of 6 to 18 must attend school.

In 1996, that law was amended to exempt children who are being educated at home, as long as the curriculum includes reading, spelling, mathematics, science, history, civics, literature, writing and English grammar.

Religion was a part of the De Prees' desire to home school, as they wanted to pass on their beliefs. But it was more than that.

"I wanted that extra time with my kids," Kathy said. "I wanted to be the main influence in their lives, to have that bonding … It's just always been good for our family."

Evidence suggests the De Prees may be the rule rather than the exception. In 2003, a study done by the National Home Education Research Institute surveyed about 7,300 adults who had been home-schooled.

The study found that more than 74 percent of home-schooled adults aged 18-24 had taken college level courses, compared to 46 percent of the general population. About half of those who responded to the survey were still full-time college students.

About 71 percent of those surveyed are active participants in their communities, spending their free time volunteering, coaching sports teams or working with a church or neighborhood association, compared to 37 percent of the general population.

Home school graduates also work for political candidates, contribute to campaigns and vote in higher percentages than the general population, the study shows.

Erin said home-schooling is tied into the relationship of the family as a whole, and successful home-schooled students tend to come from very close, nurturing families. That nurturing has spilled over into her relationships with her students.

"I care about them a lot," she said. "I'm very passionate about my students, I'm very protective of them."